Schumacher glad he's not Vettel's team-mate

Michael Schumacher is glad he was not Sebastian Vettel's team-mate this year, saying the difference between Vettel and Mark Webber at Red Bull this year was "shocking".

Vettel equalled Schumacher's record of 13 wins in a season this year on his way to a fourth consecutive title and nearly scored double the points of team-mate Webber, who failed to win a race. Asked to comment on Vettel's achievements, Schumacher said the Red Bull driver was a worthy champion who has the potential to challenge more of his records.

"Great job, very consistent, look at his team-mate, that's your reference point that you take," Schumacher said of Vettel. "I mean he won all those races, 13 this year I think. Mark Webber, he won none in the end, if I'm right. That is pretty shocking. I'm glad I'm not his team-mate! But definitely he is the worthy truly champion. I'm really happy for him. If somebody can break all this records I prefer it to be him, than somebody else."

Schumacher retired from Formula One at the end of last season, being replaced by Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. He said he does not miss F1 and could have stayed on at the team if he wanted to.

"I'm tired of this one and that is why I decided [to retire], because Mercedes gave me the option to continue for the future and I didn't really fancy it," he said. "I have arrived in my new life and that is very nice. Even if you go back after the first time I retired I didn't really miss it because I have so many other pleasureful things to do, so it is a good life."

Schumacher believes Mercedes is now a team capable of fighting for the championship after finishing second in the constructors' this year.

"I mean it is a great result, particularly if you consider where we were coming from last year," he said. "I mean we were absolutely nowhere by the end of last year and nobody could have expected to be fighting, even at part of the season, for the championship. So they did it, they had a great start of the year and they even were able to a sort of push through the year quite hard until a point that they understood 'Ah okay, here we are at the end of the championship for us, so it is better to focus on to 2014'.

"Since quite a while Ross Brawn decided to have the right amount of people in the right position and everything now is there to have the base to fight the championship in the future. And that's what I think can happen. Anyway, congratulations for the second position."